The Kitchen, Inc., celebrated the opening of its new emergency shelter for homeless individuals and families Thursday morning with a ribbon cutting, blessing and open house.

The new 50-bed shelter replaces the old 50-bed shelter located near Commercial Street, which is closing once the residents move into the new facility next week.

The Kitchen, Inc. CEO Meleah Spencer and Community Development Coordinator Roz Palmer gave the media a tour Wednesday.

Spencer explained that, as it's always been, the new emergency shelter is a 90-day program intended to give homeless individuals and families a temporary place to live until they can get into other housing programs.

Clients have access to case management to assist them getting into those programs, as well as connected with other partner agencies including Burrell Behavioral Health, Jordan Valley Community Health Care Center, MSU Cares, Harmony House, OACAC and One Door.

Security is improved at the new shelter, Spencer said. Plus, the building and the appliances (refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, heat and air conditioning units) are all brand new.

Prior to drawing up plans, Springfield architect Stephanie Ireland sat down with The Kitchen's staff to talk about what works and what doesn't work with the old emergency shelter, Spencer said.

As a result, Ireland came up with a unique design — one that allows the number of beds per apartment to change depending on how many are needed.

The downstairs apartments are intended for either an individual or a couple. If there are children, then an upstairs door unlocks to a bedroom with two twin size beds and a desk. If there are more than two children, that upstairs bedroom connects with a second two-bedroom.

"Before, in an apartment, I might have some unused bedroom because of a single woman," Spencer said. "Now, I can configure it to where if I have a single woman, no problem. I configure the room upstairs for another family of six so no bed gets unused. It's maximum efficiency."

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The Kitchen's new Emergency Shelter is located at 1855 E. Chestnut Expressway.(Photo11: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

Spencer said fundraising for the $2.5 million emergency shelter is complete. Now, the focus shifts to raising money for phase two, the administration building.

The Kitchen's current administration is located at 420 E. Pacific St., near where the nonprofit's campus had been housed on and around Commercial Street for more than 30 years. The Kitchen sold the Missouri Hotel, which had been used as a traditional homeless shelter, in 2015 when it adopted the Housing First plan.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Housing First is an approach to quickly and successfully connect individuals and families experiencing homelessness to permanent housing without preconditions and barriers to entry, such as sobriety, treatment or service participation requirements.

Following Housing First practices, The Kitchen now puts people in scattered-site apartments and houses rented from private landlords rather than in a homeless shelter.

The Kitchen's emergency shelter program puts people in apartment-style housing, with kitchens and living room spaces, while they work to get into permanent housing.

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Dog kennels at The Kitchen's new Emergency Shelter located at 1855 E. Chestnut Expressway.(Photo11: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

As they prepare to move clients into the new shelter, Palmer said she is most excited about the fenced-in backyard area with playground equipment, picnic tables and a dog kennel.

"At the old shelter, there was no place for the kids to play. But now we have this," Palmer said, motioning to the playground equipment. "The backyard is enclosed and safe for the kiddos, their privacy and confidentiality."

The dog kennel area can house up to eight dogs. Service animals will be allowed inside the apartments, she said.

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The playground at The Kitchen's new Emergency Shelter located at 1855 E. Chestnut Expressway.(Photo11: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

The new shelter is located at 1855 E. Chestnut Expressway and is Phase 1 of the construction project at The O'Reilly Family Campus, a 2.5-acre tract of land near the intersection of Chestnut and Glenstone.

Phase two of the campus will be the construction of the Sam and June Hamra Family Support Services Building, which will include space for 26 case managers.

In addition to case managers, the first floor will consist of conference rooms to encourage collaboration of all of The Kitchen's housing programs and community partners. The second floor will house the administrative offices, the boardroom and conference space. Work is expected to begin on Phase 2 in 2019.

The Kitchen is continuing to sell "bricks" to help fund the new shelter and future administration building. A smaller brick can be purchased for a $100 donation and larger bricks are $200. The bricks can be engraved and a graphic added of the donor's choosing for an extra $10.